Epic 211 story (Patreon)

Delta watched from her core as the network she was now supposedly in charge of continued to slowly link to other Dungeons. The connections were merely formalities, paths for Delta to reach out and introduce herself but the number of Dungeons was becoming a little absurd.

Foodie was one thing, Nu’s Trinity was another.

The Dungeons in need of guidance ranged from some Dungeons just having nothing special to attract people to outright stagnant holes in the ground where the Dungeon was stuck in a limbo of trying to do too many things at once causing it to end up doing nothing at all.

Some Dungeons were just a problem. The Dungeon somewhere to the Shattered Left arm who decided that human flesh and organs made for sound structure design. That Dungeon was in the ‘manageable’ category.

A Dungeon in the ‘unmanageable’ category was one of the ones she was looking at now. A Dungeon who had an entrance of strange thorny towers that crackled as lightning struck it. The inside was riddled with traps designed to ‘contain’. The Dungeon seemed to be convinced that something special occurred when someone died of Mana poisoning. It did its best to trap adventurers in ways to prevent them dying or escaping.

All that energy did something because it was storing it in a massive stone-like device behind its core, the energy always funneling in but never out.

Another was an onslaught of parasite Dungeons that were a step away from being bombed due to appearing as Abominations. The cores didn’t even have logical thought between them. It was all ‘more of us, less of them’.

Then there was Fun Island and Delta wasn’t even going to bother with that kettle of insane fish.

“Sis, you’ve given me a task that never ends,” she mused and looked for anything in this mess to help her.

“You look worried,” came an amused voice and Delta turned in the network space to see Lorsa floating nearby, her strange body hiding glowing pieces of a core inside.

“Lorsa, good to see you again,” Delta said kindly and the older woman looked around the mostly non-functional network.

“I remember this. It wasn’t my job, always Silver’s,” Lorsa mused and Delta perked up.

“Silver?” she asked and Lorsa pursed her lips then decided to physically relax, floating in the space to get comfortable.

“The runt. Not as central as Yal. Not as ingrained as I was. Not as clever as Mayden. Silver always had a chip on his core about being the balanced one,” Lorsa said slowly, letting the words come out quietly.

“He was so stubborn, he didn’t even change his name from the base default model core he was assigned. Silver was the best fit for talking to others. Silver was earnest and the other Dungeon cores that came after responded really well to him. He would joke or get mad if they slacked off, but everyone could feel he enjoyed having his thing,” Lorsa continued. She spoke casually but Delta would have to be blind to see how it took some personal strength on the other woman’s part to be so nonchalant.

“I met someone with Silver-traits,” Delta said and Lorsa exhaled slowly.

“Remnants. Silver was old and old Dungeons don’t really just ‘die’. There’s so much left over,” Lorsa admitted as she turned to look over the dark network as if looking for a light.

“Silver was deceived by a woman; or something appearing as a woman. Her name was Lare,” Lorsa said, tone much tighter.

“She caused an event in the nearby village and led Silver to become an Abomination. His core became overrun with so much instability that it morphed out of shape. Silver left his Dungeon to hunt down the villagers, slamming people together with his mana-starved monsters as a curse. He wandered away, chasing Lare then he vanished, traces of his mad-stricken form tainted the land. The main body should have been huge, consuming so much, but Silver just vanished,” Lorsa said and sat up.

“I’m sorry,” Delta said, not sure if Lorsa had ever just talked like this before to anyone with so little barriers between them.

“I can’t face them, the tainted. I see them and just want to rip Silver out of them but it's just unthinking flesh, leftovers. It hurts but they must be hurting more,” Lorsa sighed and floated closer.

Delta was about to say something when she became deeply aware of someone listening. It was one of the five dungeons on Fun Island. It has taken the offered network strand and felt it out, but hadn’t connected.

It was listening.

“Hello?” Delta tried to call out.

“You’re looking at Lare the wrong way,,” the core responded simply and disconnected. Lorsa turned, looking ready to force the connection back open with anger in her eyes but she simply didn’t have any authority in this space, not like Delta.

She poked, knocked, and even tried to be rude and knock louder but the core had gone dark. Not just out of reach but submerged in that thick pentagram formation the dungeons formed on the island, their own private little ‘channel’.

“Sis, can you get me in there?” she called up. A window appeared.

‘I’m sorry, Delta. I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

Delta gave the window a long look and she could almost hear Sis giggling.

Sorry, the joke was there, but I honestly can’t.

“I don’t mind being told no. I just want to know why,” Delta said as Lorsa began kicking the network in frustration.

They’re in charge of something but I intentionally made the memories hazy. I suspect that means there is a powerful Silence they’re contending with and my own memories might empower it. I don’t want to unleash something just to speed up something I know you can do by being you!

“You shouldn’t alter your memories,” Delta chided and the window shuddered.

“Do you know what happened to Silver?” Delta decided to ask. Sis was the goddess of the world after all.

I’m afraid not. His tragic turn was completely shrouded in Silence influence. It was a black space to my vision. It didn’t help Silver dropped the network and I had to rush to salvage it before any corruption could spread

Sis seemed to sound regretful and it explained why Lorsa didn’t already have answers.

“Would Bro know?” Delta mused.

She looked to the ‘bottom’ of the network where the earth glowed.

“Do you?” she asked and there was a pause Delta could hear Brother’s voice.

‘I was asleep, hell of a nap’ he said and a second later the sound of snoring sounded out.

Delta frowned and looked back at the pentagram of dungeons.

They held secrets but Delta was a teacher.

No bunch of snot-nose punks could keep gum or secrets in her classroom.

---

Thomas Darkblade swung his sword of +9 poison (good for killing the first three bosses of any good adventure!) in the shadows that dogged him. He had a full schedule ahead of checking those respawning chests that had a 0.005% of a slightly uncommon item along with a strong task of uncovering the fog of war that never seemed to end!

It was tough being Thomas Darkblade, but he was the example all adventurers should live up to!

Just as he was about to run off, he paused as something inside squirmed. Thomas paused, all surface ideas of who he was peeling away until it was nothing more than writhing mass of liquid mythril with numbers branded across its surface.

It rippled as it took on the form of a sword then a spear then a ring, each shape the idea of inherent value until he obtained then the being had to shift again because a form it didn’t possess.

The most valuable thing it could perceive was the thing it didn’t have. The idea of the man, the idea of Thomas Darkblade had been disrupted as the being inside was being ‘contacted’.

‘You want what I have?’ the Echo of Greed asked the reaching force, only to quiver as a larger power subdued it. If it was within physical distance, the thing might have consumed him.

The louder Echo consumed the quieter one, both becoming one. It was just nature.

‘You remain pitiful, but what can I expect from the Echo formed from the glow of a television screen? Unimportant numbers going up when real numbers didn’t change?’ came a chiding tone and the Echo of Greed almost defended himself.

Before it could even get a word out, the older one snapped.

‘Do not take that tone with me. You aren't even the pure Echo of Greed. You are lesser. You are minute. You are the avatar of pointlessness. You are the symbol of immaterial gains. You are the Echo of Ignorance’ the larger power warned and the mythril sludge quivered in on itself, forced to acknowledge itself.

“And you are Lare, the one once known as Lare’ the slime muttered.

‘I am and you now have a job. My... retirement home has been prodded.  I am still in deep work and cannot risk the interference of... her’ Lare said succinctly.

‘Delta... Delta...” The Echo of Ignorance muttered. He should take the name Thomas for himself really, but what if a better one came along? What if it was one name per account?!

‘The Dungeon you are nestled against? The one that the Great Son is beneath? The one in her image? The one who will change the world?! Are you blind, deaf, and dumb or just special?’ Lare asked, voice an ocean of scorn.

‘Wait... big sis?!” The Echo who was potentially Thomas asked in excitement.

‘We do not know and it's likely to be a trap by the two thieves. You are to challenge her, push her, make her reveal her nature so we can know for ourselves. If it is ‘her’ then my plans must change to include her. If its an avatar wearing her face then we devour her. Simple’ Lare scoffed.

The one formerly known as Thomas was giddy until his being was ‘smacked’.

‘Idiot. Don’t be so giddy. Do I need to remind you that we’ve already lost three of our kind to that absolute menace Gamma? Do I need to remind you that our attempts to rescue Beta ended up with one of stronger Echoes entombed in that parasite’s tree? Do I need to remind you that I’m currently in the process of retrieving one of our number from the Abyss and the demons? And you... you are playing dress up in some old fools basement’ Lare sighed.

‘I’ve been adventuring,” The Echo protested.

‘And your Echoes. Your influence... who has been benefiting off them? Your dear ‘Calculators’? It certainly isn’t you. No, someone in that accursed village is using you as a battery and you’re too idiotic to notice. Get out of that tomb and do your job’ Lare warned.

“But I need one more rat,” The one potentially known as Thomas said.

‘I am going to throttle you, just leave-’ Lare began and Thomas’s aura glowed, briefly outgrowing Lare.

“I. NEED. ONE. MORE.” Thomas snarled and Lare went quiet for a moment.

‘You... that wasn’t just you. How many has he fed to you- Lare began but Thomas shook Lare off, reshaping himself back to a mortal man.

“Hm I do believe I have a new quest,” Thomas said brightly as he turned slowly to a set of stairs he ignored up to now.

“I do believe my last rat is called ‘Delta’,” he said and walked forward, the earth shaking as he shook off immaterial bonds and prison bars.

Nothing got in the way of an upgrade for the S-rank Adventurer Thomas Darkblade.

---

“I am a tree,” the boy who clearly was not a tree said as Kemy stood before him. Yet. she didn't sense a falsehood in his words.

“You spiritually think you’re a tree?” she asked kindly. The boy stared back, two buckets on his arms for ‘fee on entry’ to the guildhall.

“No, I am a tree in blood, bone, and mind,” the boy continued.

Again, Kemy sense no lies.

“Trees are complex lifeforms, no one said they must remain rooted and unable to speak,” said her ‘party member’ Yattina who was admiring the boy as if her strange orange eye saw something no one else did.

“You can pay to enter now or before you leave. Entry is only-” the boy who had a name tag reading ‘Vas’ suddenly went rigid as if a lightning bolt struck him.

“I must go. I am called. I am needed once more,” Vas said, his tone shifting so abruptly that he sounded almost menacing to Kemy but she let him past as he handed her two heavy buckets filled with money. She couldn’t lift them both and promptly fell over.

The sounds of scattering money made someone inside call out furiously.

“Shame, I could have seen him in a fetching green anti-god suit,” Yattina muttered, pushing money off her shoes as if the stuff held no value to her.

Kemy was about to say something when a beautiful girl emerged from the front door in a dress that looked mildly expensive and with a curious expression on her face.

“Grim said he sensed profits being exposed to ‘the dirty masses’ and I supposed you are the mass?” she asked politely.

Kemy had found her.

Her shining crown of truth that was hiding behind a mask of royalty!

Now all she needed was to find the one who hid a golden heart behind a paywall!

“Is it mass if there are only two of us?” Yattina asked and the girl blinked at her, seemingly stunned.

“A-Apologises, your face... you reminded me of a dear protector,” the girl said and Kemy looked between them.

“No offense, but the only person I look like is my sister Brilda and that’s because our mother’s genes were so strong they beat the enzymes out of my father’s dna,” Yattina said bluntly.

The girl was too stunned to speak.

Kemy foresaw this to be a wonderful start to a group adventure.